Biosophilia

a. Obeying the moral law (even though it may be aberrant in some parts) b. Performing the distinctive code of that particular religion Examples are the eight-fold path in Buddhism, the five points of Islam, the sacraments in Roman Catholicism, and the progressive mean of salvation (becoming gods) in Mormonism. In all of the above, salvation is based upon man’s effort to please God in order to get a reward from Him. This is true of many other world religions, as well as much of Protestantism (liberalism and legalism).

The religions mentioned have also merged with animistic religions in many parts of the world. People who hold to the beliefs of Catholicism, Buddhism, or Islam may practice demon-worship. This is syncretism. I am not attempting to prove what I have just said; I am declaring it to be true without proof in order to get on to a real solution.

There are other major problems; I will speak of them in pairs. First, hedonism and fertility cults: one is simply worldly and the other has made sex a religious rite. In both cases, sex and other forms of pleasure have been prostituted. These are often mixed with animism and the established religions. Another pair found in established religions is asceticism and mysticism. The Sufis and Dervishes in Islam and the mystic monks in Roman Catholicism are examples of mystics. Hermit, priests, and nuns who take the vow of abstinence are examples of ascetics; some of the Pietists were as well. Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy; Catholic nuns take a vow of chastity.

The final two are money and power. I am not going to dwell on these two other than to quote Jesus. “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt. 6:24).

So far, I have mentioned Protestantism (liberalism and legalism), Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Animism. There are others like Hinduism, New-Age religions, and Judaism. Although some of these are dead, some are alive, but false. Is there any truth anywhere?

What I am going to tell you about now is not some tiny, splinter, exclusive group that says it is right and everyone else is wrong. It is very widespread; it encompasses many peoples and many languages, has thousands upon thousands of teachers and millions of adherents, and is the only inclusive religion of the world. Although it is inclusive, it is not syncretistic.

This religion is now called Christianity, though the adherents were once called “disciples,” “believers,” or “followers of the Way.” Disciple was short for disciple of Christ, believer short for believer in Christ, and followers of the Way because Jesus said, “I am the Way.” In every historic Christian church there were very likely real believers; there are also real unbelievers in the same churches.

Are not Protestants and Catholics Christians? Yes—many of them, but not all.

Let’s start at the beginning.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. (Genesis 1:17)

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. That was false, a lie. The other tree was the tree of life. This one was the tree of death. Husband and wife ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; they spiritually died and then were exiled. They were not allowed to eat from the tree of life, not because of a prohibition, but because they would have had access to it when they had been promised death.

Man now knows good from evil, but he no longer has the spiritual life of God. He has lost the real likeness to God. A few generations passed and man wondered where he came from, why he is here, and where he is going. After an impatient, short search, man created gods in his own image.

Man’s gods now look like man; there are also many gods. They have different names, but they have one basic thing in common—they look like man. Man is selfish; the gods are selfish. Man needs praise for his effort and works, so he creates a god who will praise him for his works. Man is good and evil (good in his own eyes); he creates gods who are “good and evil.”

These gods created in the image of man do not look like and are not the same as the God who created man in His own image. Why not? Because man no longer had the likeness of God once he had created his own gods.

Why do the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. (Psalm 115:2-8)

Men in this state do not know how to find God or to please Him, and yet they expect God to be moderately pleased with their effort and works. This is called sin.

Man looks to and prays to his created gods rather to the Creator God. This Creator God has other characteristics besides omnipotence and the origin of order and design.

But let him who boasts, boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in thee I delight. (Jeremiah 9:24)

Do you understand the Lord? Do you know Him? Is this what you know of Him, that He delights in you, and exercises kindness?

Here is another expression of this characteristic of God from the New Testament.

Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that it is God’s kindness that leads you toward repentance? (Romans 2:4)

Righteousness, justice, kindness, tolerance, patience—God exhibits these additional characteristics toward His disobedient creation. Man exhibits contempt toward God. When the kindness of God continues, it causes man to repent, that is, turn toward God. When man turns back to the Creator God who expresses kindness, then man regains the likeness to God that he had lost, and the created gods disappear.

St. Paul, in his first visit to Athens, had a marvelous experience. Paul was seeing Athens in its grandeur, not as we see it today, destroyed and decayed. Even with this splendor, he was not impressed.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.’ (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.” Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by art and man's imagination.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.’ When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’ At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. (Acts 17:16-34)

Notice that at one time God overlooked this ignorant gross idolatry, but does not any longer. Man must turn back to the Creator God from his created gods. How?

1. Man cannot do anything to please God by his own effort, so the first thing to do is quit trying.

2. Man should have at least a small view of the holiness of God. He will then recognize his own extreme wickedness in the light of God’s holiness. Man is already guilty; he will now feel guilty. Sin and guilt for sin are not relative values.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:3-7)

Man should begin to understand God’s love, mercy, kindness, and grace toward him, even though he is a great sinner and God knows it.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

The content of this good news is succinctly expressed in I Corinthians 15:1-5:

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

Is this different from the fear religions and reward religions? Yes, in what you have read God is completely good and man is completely bad, and God in His goodness has a solution to forgive man and to change his character without overlooking his sin. What is that solution? We have already seen a portion of it. Here is more:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

God became man in the person of Jesus so He would have the capability of dying. His death set us free from death and the fear of death. When Christ died to sin, we died to sin.

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:10-11)

By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:2)

We are now freed from the power of sin. How did this happen? It was simple substitution.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:21)

This is the good news.

Let me illustrate the difference between “good advice” and “good news.” The goodness in the advice has to do with the hearer agreeing with it and working to perform the advice. Good news has nothing to do with performing anything. It simply is!

Suppose I am in a class where I do not understand what is going on. It is called “Differential Equations.” Like many students, I study the subjects I like, but do not study the subjects I do not like and do not understand them. The professor suspects this is true of me and calls me into his office in order to encourage me. He gives me good advice. He says, “Study.” I do not study. He calls me in again and says, “Study hard.” It is more good advice which I do not take. He calls me in weekly to advise me to study. The semester comes to an end; I am now looking at a blank piece of paper in the final exam. The professor passes my desk and sees that I do not know what I am doing. He says, “Get up. I will take the test for you.” My reply is, “Professor, you have been giving me good advice all semester, but this is the first good news I have heard.”

Many of the religions of the world give “good advice” to their adherents, but the people do not take the advice. They will not, and cannot, be good. God is the only one who gives good news. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. He took our final exam for us. We get a free 4.0 when we deserve to flunk. This is grace and mercy. Grace is giving to us what we do not deserve. Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve.

How do we respond to this good news?

There are several expressions which are different, but talk about the same events. Most of these words are verbs or verbal nouns.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead…I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. (Acts 17:30-31, 20:21)

The key responsive words are “repent,” “repentance,” and “faith.” These words mean an about face, a turning around, a change of mind toward God, and trust in Him.

To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:18)

The key word is turn. The result is forgiveness of sin and an everlasting inheritance.

That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:9-13)

Several responsive words show up in this paragraph. They are “confess,” “believe,” “trust,” and “call.”

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29)

The responsive words here are “come” and “take.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life…Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him…I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 3:16, 36, 5:24)

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:12-13)

The responsive words are “receive” and “believe.” The object of each of these verbs is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the result of this action toward Jesus is children of God. These nine words (repent, faith, confess, believe, trust, call, come, take, and receive) are not synonym, but they are the same action. The object of the verb is God and the result is salvation.

There are three steps to this salvation:

1. recognition of great needs (sin)
2. a spiritual understanding of the good news as a solution to that need
3. the response that brings a person into the experience of life in Jesus Christ

There are three results of this salvation from sin and new life in Jesus Christ.

1. All of our past sins and the state of sin are forgiven. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Cor. 5:17)
2. There is now power to live a life of victory over sin. “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness…But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:18, 22).
3. There is now a new character. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22).
4. There is in the future a complete salvation, including a resurrected body. “Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).

If you have called upon the Lord in repentance,

1. Thank Him for your salvation.
2. Tell another Christian of your new belief.
3. Let me know and I will send you some instruction on your new life in Christ.
4. Talk to a friend and request baptism.
5. If you have questions, you may write to me.

Community Christian Ministries
516 S. Main
Moscow, ID 83843
www.ccmbooks.org